This fixture will be billed as the one that got away with Bala snatching the 3 points in the 94th minute. Gresford travelled in the knowledge that Bala's recent run of success was never going to make this an easy fixture and with weather conditions having deteriorated over the past few days Meas Tegid was not looking it's best after the midweek encounter with Penrhyncoch. With Simon Smith suspended Levi Roberts was brought into the squad and joined Max Peate and Tom Hughes on the bench with Stef Edwards being drafted back into the starting line that had fought so well at Penrhyncoch last week. Despite the heavy conditions and swirling wind, Gresford settled into the game from the off and a Kev Hope free kick in the 4th minute brought keeper Nicholson into action. Bala responded well and from a throw in deep in the Gresford half Warren Duckett should have done better when his chance flew high over the bar. However it was the visitors who took the lead in the 20th minute when Kev Hope chose his right foot to strike the ball from the left into the top corner of the goal with keeper Nicholson only managing to get the slightest of touches to it. Gresford m,maintained the pressure on Bala Town who equalized in the 28th minute following a poorly defended corner being scrambled into the net by Neil Fisher and despite both sides creating chances to take the lead into the break the score stayed level at 1 - 1 with Bala making an enforced change just before half time with Marc Griffiths being withdrawn and replaced by Alec Stacey. The second half got underway with no relent in the weather conditions and Gresford were awarded a succession of free kicks within the first ten minutes which unfortunately they failed to take advantage of and the score stayed deadlocked at 1 - 1 for the remainder of the 90 minutes with both sets of players tiring in the heavy conditions which saw Gethin Lloyd on for Wes Brereton and Tommy Harrison replacing Bryn Jones for the home side and Gresford introducing Tom Hughes on his return to Maes Tegid for Josh Page, Max Peate on for Mike Pugh and Levi Roberts making his first team debut when he came on in place of Owen Roberts. As the game fell deep into injury time with the score still level Bala were awarded a corner which Gresford defended well with Tom Hughes picking the ball up on the left and running deep into the Bala half before feeding it across to Ian Matthias whose shot from outside the box had keeper Nicholson beaten as it shaved the outside of the right hand post. With both sides looking to referee Ian Evans to blow the final whistle, Bala broke into a well defended Gresford half from the resulting goal kick and Gethin Lloyd struck the killer blow which saw a well deserved point being grabbed from the visitors in the 94th minute! |
